


Lord and Lady - The Portal

by MinaAffairs



Series: Lord and Lady of Dryl [4]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 08:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinaAffairs/pseuds/MinaAffairs
Summary: A different take on the climax of season 3. A major point of divergence in the Lord and Lady-verse.





	Lord and Lady - The Portal

**Author's Note:**

> Posted a bit ago on tumblr. Decided to show how this went down in Lord and Lady.

“I have to tell Hordak! He’ll understand!” Entrapta let the words out almost without thinking, starting to run forward. They can’t activate the portal, it will ruin everything they’ve worked towards. Also it will destroy the world but that was going to happen either way really.

Then the stun baton hits her back. The energy courses across her body. Normally this would quickly incapacitate any Etherian, even one as tough as Entrapta.

But Entrapta is Lady of the Horde, and Hordak had insisted on her current garments. The electrically insulated bodysuit stops the worst of the energy from coursing into her. The pain is immense, but Lady Entrapta does not fall. She cannot call. Not yet. 

Her fair flails, it grabs at Catra and throw her aside. Entrapta’s heart is racing, her mind is so shocked and confused. This betrayal, of someone she considered a friend. It has to be pushed aside though. She knows what she needs to do. Hordak. Hordak has to know. The Lady charges forward, stumbling and spasming, having to rely even more on her hair than normal. She spots Scorpia staring in horror at all of this.

“Stop her!” She can hear Catra call out. The thug from the crimson wastes tries to get in Entrapta’s way. There is no time for that. One of Entrapta’s tools is pulled from her hair, a driver, she plunges it into the thug as she runs by. 

No time to stop. Catra is fast. She needs to get to the Sanctum.

…

“She did it…" 

Lord Hordak couldn’t help but smirk, even smile, at the operational portal frame standing before him. There’s a pride in seeing it. The sword integrated into the machine. He knew Entrapta could make it function. The Lady never ceased to amaze with her technical skills. 

Adora was making a particularly valiant effort of squirming and trying to scream through her gag when he hears Entrapta. "Hordak!” His smile, for a brief moment, grows. Then he notices the voice is not the happy sound one would expect from this success. His expression falls.

“Entrapta?” He spins around. Worry fills him, and rage. She’s panting, she looks frazzled and panicked. “What is wrong?" 

"We can’t open the portal!” She says as she stumbles forward. Hordak watches her lose her step and begin to fall. He charges forward to catching her, kneeling on the ground to hold her.

Then he hears the next voice. “She’s a traitor!” It is Catra. Hordak feels his anger swell further. “The princess are here! We have to open the portal!”

“We can’t!” Entrapta lets out weakly. He can see the scorch marks on the back of her bodysuit from this angle. She was attacked and tazed, an

at maximum settings. It was almost definitely Catra. The Lord feels his eyes narrow.

“We have to! She’s lying Hordak! She let them in! She wants you to not open the portal so they’ll win!" 

"Silence!” Hordak howls. “Do you think I would trust you over Entrapta?!”

Catra looks taken aback for a moment. Then her own eyes harden, her fingers flexing.

Hordak shifts, and picks his Lady up carefully, she’s weak and on the verge of passing out by the look of things. How she even got this far is a question worthy of its own scientific investigation. His eyes never leave the disgraced Force Captain as he stands. She’s readying to attack. It is painfully clear in her body language.

“It’ll cause reality to collapse.” He hears Entrapta try to explain to him. His sensitive ears twitching and rotating ever so slightly to pick her up better. “I ran the simulations… It’ll consume everything.”

“I understand.” Is all Hordak says. He does. He hasn’t seen her calculations but he trusts Entrapta, and he knows the portal physics well enough to understand immediately what she is trying to get at. A Cascade failure of some kind. Due to interaction with the empty dimensions physics in some unexpected way perhaps? It is irrelevant, they will solve the problem later. Catra will be dealt with and the area will be locked down.

Then the rebels enter the sanctum. The arrow boy, Princess Glimmer, that evil wench Shadow Weaver. Hordak finds himself scowling deeply. 

Catra takes the moment of confusion to charge toward the portal. Hordak roars and even with Entrapta in his arms moves to intercept. He can fight Catra with no arms if he must. She is nothing compared to a Clone of Horde Prime.

Then the arrow hits his side. 

With his hands full he could not grab the projectile. 

His pain tolerance is immense, and his physiology strong, it won’t put him down or even lay him up, but it does make him falter long enough for Catra to run past him. These idiotic rebels will doom them all!

The traitorous witch and the princess rip machinery out to throw at Hordak at the same time. Fools, all of them, focusing on him. 

“NO!” Hordak shouts as he dodges the incoming mass of metal. Catching sight of Catra near the controls.

He catches Adora’s voice as well. “Catra don’t do this!”

Then the damnable cat pulls the lever.

…

It had been a rather fine day for Hordak. His soldiers were in good spirits after a recent flawless victory led by some up and coming new Force Captain. No one was bothering him. He could simply take the time to work within his sanctum. Quiet and uninterrupted.

At least that was the plan for the Lord.

He heard Imp screech at the Intruders. These force captains that have snuck into his sanctum. They entered his private area without permission, poking around like rats, and Hordak will see them punished for this. Scorpia he knows but this other one, this new one. Shadow Weavers Ward. The one everyone is praising for her victory in Thaymore. Leave it to the witch to produce such disrespectful officers.

“The portal machine!” The new one calls out in a panic as Hordak approaches. His anger dispels, met instead with confusion. How does she know? Did Shadow Weaver inform her ward of Hordak’s work? The most heavily classified project in the Fright Zone and his second in command simply gave the information to this… child?!

“You.” Hordak begins with a growl, only to be interrupted.

“You and Entrapta completed it! Why isn’t it here?!”

Shock overcomes Hordak. Completed it? He and…

Entrapta.

The memories flood back. Entrapta. His lab partner. His beloved. His Lady. The portal machine, they had finished it, but they didn’t activate it. There was a problem. Entrapta came to warn him. So they didn’t activate it. Catra did.

Catra.

He needs to focus. No time for the rising boiling rage at the feline woman.

“I…” Hordak glances around. The portal machine

Why isn’t it here? Adora was right to search here by all logic. “I do not know… This lab should be the epicenter…” He notes as the calculations run through his mind. “Unless…”

“Unless what?!” Adora shouts. Unfortunately for this obnoxious traitor Hordak can see reality starting to crumble apart. He spins around to Adora and Scorpia.

“You need to find Entrapta.” The Lord commands. “You will likely need the teleporting princess as well. Glimmer. Wherever the portal has located itself in this reality it is likely going to be difficult to get to. Consider where the sword might have taken it.”

“That’s it?! That’s all you can tell me!?” She looks angry, good, she should be.

“There is no TIME! Go! It must be closed quickly before the signal can go through!" 

He sees Adora look confused. "Signal? What sign-”

“Go NOW!” Hordak shouts. Stepping forward and literally throwing the girl out of his sanctum.

The Lord turns to glance at the encroaching end of his reality. Trying to determine his options. There aren’t many. He doesn’t really exist after all, or perhaps he does exist but none of this exists? Either is a valid and mind bendingly accurate way to observe the situation. Entrapta will likely come to the same conclusion.

Perhaps he can jam any outgoing communications. It really would be best if Horde Prime does not get etherias location if opening a portal upon it can cause such destruction. At least until they have solved the problem. Hordak would hate for his brother to arrive only for everything Hordak has built to crumble away. It would make all of this… pointless.

As Hordak moves the nearest sanctum terminal to attempt his new work his mind fills not with thoughts of his brother or the goals he’s held for decades. No, his mind fills with thoughts of Entrapta. Hoping she is okay in this unstable world. Hoping she can guide Adora to success. No. There is no need to hope. Entrapta is capable, she’ll fix this where he could not, as she did him.

As Hordak works the collapsing reality simply consumes him. There is no fear. No need to rail against fate. The Lord does his part. The Lady will handle hers.

… 

The moment Entrapta comes to she realizes what’s happening. She remembers what has transpired. The portals been shut down. She looks out towards the machine. Spotting Catra near it, looking shocked and confused as gravity seems to momentarily fail in the sanctum. Anger fills the Lady. A white hot rage at the betrayal she has suffered. 

Then she feels herself being lifted up! It’s surprising! It’s less than comfortable! She doesn’t like this unexpected touching! Then she realizes it’s Hordak and it gets better. She can trust him, he would only do this because he thinks it is necessary. The Lady looks up at him, he’s watching Catra and the portal too. All the while standing with Entrapta in his arms.

She-Ra destroys the frame a moment later. Catra runs first, escaping quickly in the confusion.

Hordak and Entrapta can only stare for a moment as their beloved project crumbles, as their sanctum falls apart. As everything they’ve worked so hard for is destroyed. Entrapta feels a pit of sorrow inside of her, and she knows Hordak must feel it too.

“It would be best to go…” Entrapta speaks finally. Shifting herself and extending her hair to let him know she can move on her own.

“Yes.” Her Hordak agrees as he lets her go. She glances at him again, noting the arrow lodged in his side still. They’ll need to remove that once they’re safe.

So the Lord and Lady retreat from the sanctum, it is simply too dangerous to stay between the collapsing state of the lab and the fact they are outnumbered by the rebel forces present. It’ll be a fight they cannot currently win.

But one does not need to win every fight. There will be others.


End file.
